anthem of my dreams
by dayotachan413
Summary: this really isn't POTO unfortunately, but it was the closest category to the thing. It is a story inspired by listening to Ramin Karimloo's "Music of the Night" on repeat. It is creepy. huzza. rated T for it being spooky scary.


Kalliope R. Smid

Writing 1

Jacob Asbell

Falling asleep is always difficult. I would close my eyes tightly and wish the void would be replaced by the morning sun's rays, or that I would hear a car pass by. The welcoming smell of a freshly cooked breakfast, my alarm going off. To feel the gentle footsteps of someone who needed a midnight snack going past my door. Occasionally these things happen. They comfort me and allow me to have a perfect, dreamless sleep.

But there is nothing to comfort me tonight. I started to feel lost in my own mind, my consciousness far far from reality. I suddenly have a sense of dread with no explanation. I can't see shadows, yet they engulf me in a way that I cannot explain or describe. I am swimming in darkness, and I can't help but notice whispering. It comes from everywhere. It is just quiet enough that I cannot make out what it is, even though there is no other sound.

As the whispers get louder, I realize that it isn't in any language. It isn't whispers, either. It is the voices of many, overlapping and becoming one voice, neither male or female. They are singing the one song that is more atrocious than any death or torture.

It is the song that makes up my dreams.

Everything freezes and goes silent. Gravity seems to kick in and I fall into a gray room with various things in it; there is a door, a desk, a bed, a lamp, and a stuffed animal on the bed. Everything is dull and metallic and the song gets louder.

I raise my head, then sit up. I breathe heavily and hear my heart beating, but the voices have stopped. I look around and try to calm myself. The room is slowly turning to a more natural color. I frantically get to my feet and stand there, panting.

I'm standing in my room.

In the window the sun's rays shine through. I jerk my head around to locate the sudden clamor behind me. I turn to find that it's just my alarm clock. I walk over, reach out a shaky hand, and turn it off. My father opens the door and comes in humming a tune I find strangely familiar. He sees me and smiles. He says good morning and that he's surprised to find me awake already. He chuckles to himself darkly, and resumes with his mysterious song. I know something is wrong, but what that is, I can't place. His song puts me into a sort of trance, and I follow him out the door.

I'm not sure why I did it or why I immediately regretted doing so, but I follow him downstairs as he sings this eerie melody. He bounces and sways to the rhythm he sings, getting louder and making the dynamics are more exaggerated. There are no actual words, but his voice grows more musical the darker it gets and the more steps we descend. I try to ask what the song is, but he doesn't seem to hear me.

After a while I can barely see my father in front of me, or tell where he is exactly, even though he is singing so loud it echoes throughout the hall. I reach out to where he should be, but nothing is there. I hear his voice envelope me and split into different voices, creating counter-melodies and what sounds like an orchestra. My imminent doom registers in me as the music shakes the small dark space I find myself in.

As I get on my knees, trying not to fall down the stairs, my body pulsates with the sickening refrain that haunts my every dream. My lip quivers and my whole body convulsed with sobs. As my frustration comes out in tears, the product of my susceptibility and stupidity, I try to wake up desperately before the finale, knowing what is coming next. I pull on my hair, I pinch myself, I pound on the stairs and the walls. Anything to get away from the Hell of my slumber.

But it was too late it seemed, because the melody was slowing down with dramatic pauses to prepare for the dreaded transition. I wailed at the top of my lungs but to no avail. Nothing could drown out the anthem that leaves me scared out of my mind every time I close my eyes.

The screams I emit are nothing compared to the booming silence that appears every so often. It swallows up any sound I make, eating my words. Then it begins a new musical phrase and I can't hear my own thoughts.

I collapse on the stairs, having given up on trying to control more than my myself in my dreams long, long ago. I close my eyes and feel the tension build as the music approaches its climax.

I hear footsteps and try to make myself smaller. It's no use. The rhythm of the footfalls slows as the figure approaches me. Its shoe touches my side and I flinch. The orchestra stops, as do the voices.

I just try to fade away. Can you fall asleep in a dream? I was going to try while I was still on the floor and the ensemble was still. I close my eyes and clear my mind, and will sleep to come to me. Having never openly accepted slumber before, my defenses fell without protest. I get enveloped once again in darkness. But this time there are no whispers.

I feel my sheets and pillow. I open my eyes. Its morning, light shines through the window. I sit up and look at everything, trying to comprehend it. I touch the bed, the sheets, the covers. I get up on my feet and run to the window.

It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. My front yard, with freshly mowed grass. The tree house that I never use anymore is out there. The tree has turned gray in its age, and the leaves are a luscious green. They shiver in the breeze, and the wind chime plays a light, carefree refrain that is not one that I recognize.


End file.
